But I wanted to share my own personal experience on how an old post on ecokaren received almost half a million pageviews—50% of all-time page views on the post—just from Pinterest. Along the way, I’ll share some tips (and some of my biggest pet peeves) that you can use for better a Pinterest experience.

Now this wildly pinned post from ecokaren—which received over 490,000 pageviews and was pinned more than 129,000 times—is about … how to wash a washing machine.

Woah, did you read that right? 129,000 pins and 490,000 pageviews?

Yup. You read that correctly.

And the post is about washing a washing machine?

Yup. Again, you read that correctly.

I was shocked too when this old post started receiving crazy traffic without my trying, never mind that it was from a newly un-shrinkwrapped social media site called Pinterest. One person’s pin of the post was repinned over 1400 times and has more than 300 likes. I should buy her a drink! Or maybe send her my homemade laundry detergent.

Now, the post was not your typical pin-worthy post. It had no huggable furry animals, no wise quotes, no cute babies nor scrumptious gourmet food. Nor did it have trendy ensemble suggestions for a fashionista or bare-chested Ryan Gosling wannabe.

Instead, it had a few small, individual photos of moldy interior of a washing machine and how it looked after it was washed. Not pretty at all, as you can see here.

So how did a boring, three-year old post get pinned so many times, to the point that it now continuously brings traffic from Pinterest? How did I make pinning sexy? (No, sex has nothing to do with it.)

My top Pinterest tips

1. Be active on Pinterest every day

It’s a no-brainer, right? But it’s true. I pin or repin almost every day, even if it’s just one pin. It’s always better to pin original posts than just repin what others are pinning but either way, I’m active on Pinterest daily.

And when do I pin? The prime time for pinning is between 4 to 11pm US EST. I pin while waiting at the bus stop in the afternoon, waiting for my daughter. But I also pin early in the morning, while my coffee percolates. It’s a perfect way to spend time in the morning.

2. Don’t just pin your own stuff

The unspoken rule of pinning is similar to StumbledUpon. It’s better to high-five others than yourself. (Did you try high-fiving yourself? Yeah. Doesn’t work well.)

You don’t want to be bragging about your post or product all the time. If you compliment others by pinning and repining, pretty soon, others will do the same for you. Sure, you can pin your stuff once in a while but it’s always better to pin that of others.

My general rule of thumb of ratio is 1:6 in pinning my post to those of others. Again, this is not written in stone, but it’s my own unspoken rule. And remember, don’t ever violate Pinterest’s copyright rules when pinning. Just don’t go there.

3. Install a Pinterest button with a counter

It’s obvious that you need a Pin it button on your posts. I use the Pin it extension or widget from my bookmark bar. But it’d be easy to have a Pin it button somewhere on your post too. Don’t make readers have to search for it. Make it easy for them.

To take it one step further, I like icons with counters. I was f-l-o-o-r-e-d when I saw “108k” on my Pin It icon on that washing machine post when its pinning frenzy started. That number will be over 127k by the time you read this. Your posts’ readers will see that number too, and they will be more inclined to pin it, seeing that it’s a wildly popular post.

Why? Readers feel validated when their views are in line with the popular majority. They want to share that feeling with their followers, and that makes them want to pin.

4. Engage your pinners and interact

Add nicely and thoughtfully constructed personal comments to pins. Not one word comments like “nice” or “

They don’t allow interactions. A real sentence or two will.

Also, reply to comments on your posts that have been pinned. I always check the comments people are leaving on posts of mine that have been pinned or repinned. I thank the original pinner and leave replies to other commenters too. Some people are shocked that “ecokaren” is “that personal” and actually came to comment. That always cracks me up. I feel like a total celebrity when I read comments like that.

5. Upload your blog logo

Load a generic blog badge or logo on your landing page, so that even if there is no image attached to your post, at least your logo or badge for your blog will be pulled up on Pinterest for people to use.

I loaded my logo into the sidebar so if there is some reason an image doesn’t load up for visitors to pin, at least they can use the blog’s logo. I see my badge on Pinterest once in a while, alongside comments like “Awesome site!”—and that makes me grin.

6. Teach people something

My all time record-breaking pinned/repinned post is about washing your front loading washing machine. Yes: a very sexy topic indeed!

But apparently, people had so much trouble with moldy-smelling front-loading, high-efficiency washing machines that they were pinning and sharing my post for “solving their problem.”

So even though the post was written three years ago and images are ugly, it finally got the attention it deserves—albeit late—and all because of Pinterest. All because the post taught readers something. It solved a problem.

How do I know that? I receive emails from housewives weekly, (I don’t mean to stereotype housewives but let’s face it folks, who does the laundry the most often in your house?) thanking me for the post.

I also created a Welcome page for email subscribers and about 75% of the signees are from the post. And in the comment section, they describe how I solved their front-loading washing machine mystery. I feel their warm hugs daily.

Optimizing your post for Pinterest

Here are some clean stats for the post (as of January 21, 2013):

Publish date: June 2009

Total pageviews: 965,085

Pageviews from Pinterest: 489,014

Average time: 1:27

Bounce rate: 57.21%

Approx. number of pins: 127,000

And the post is getting more views as you read this.

So, it’s great that this little star of a post is getting oodles of eye balls. But what did I do optimize it?

As soon as I noticed the traffic, I made a few key changes to the post:

I added affiliate links to relevant products on my Amazon affiliate account. I’m not a millionaire yet, but it’s paying the bills.

I cleaned up the images. Okay, so the images are still not Darren’s quality but I cleaned up the images that were dingy and blurry looking. A moldy washing gasket is never that pretty but the older images were dark and less desirable for pinning.

I added text to the images to make them more pinnable and gain attention right away.

I added watermarks to images so that even if someone pins (or “steals”) the images, anyone who sees them will know where they came from.

If you want to get more exposure on Pinterest, some of these ideas might work for you, too.

Pinterest peeves

Finally, I wanted to highlight my biggest pet peeves about Pinterest. These are things I always avoid—as does any good citizen of Pinterest!

I abhor when people don’t give credit where credit is due on Pinterest. In other words, they steal your image and don’t link to your post. So I started watermarking all my images. And I check on Pinterest to make sure the images are linking back to my site occasionally. So far, I haven’t discovered my image being hijacked, but I have seen plenty of other pins that do not link to its original post. I think that is wrong!

I wish there was an easier way on Pinterest to see all the pins that others pinned from ecokaren. Currently, there is no way for me to search my URL or name on the site to see all the images or posts that are pinned. I still have to use Google Analytics for the stat. Not cool. I’m hoping that Pinterest will improve pinning visibility for blog owners before long.

There isn’t a fool-proof method of searching for Pinterest users. I tried to search for pinners and more often than not, they don’t appear in the search results. Again, I have better luck using Google. Something is wrong with that picture.

I wish there was an easier way to conduct contests. A Pinterest contest is one of the best social media campaigns you can do for your business or your blog. At Green Sisterhood (http://greensisterhood.com), we manage Pinterest contests for our clients and they require a lot of maintenance. A tool that finds boards and pins that have been repinned the most would be ideal. Again, let’s hope Pinterest adds functionality for this kind of thing soon.

Are you listening Pinterest? If you can make these four things happen, I’d love you even more!

Pinterest lessons

Solve people’s problems!

On Monday, Jamie highlighted the fact that attractive, inspirational content does well on Pinterest, and that’s true. You can put up pretty images or cute animals pictures and even life changing quotes with awesome graphics on the network.

But nothing—and I mean nothing—gets people’s attention like solving problems that they have been struggling with.

Ask yourself, “What would I want to pin and repin?” That’s the post that will get pinned the most.

Do you have a personal success story on Pinterest? What was the post about? Tell us about it in the comments.

Contributing author Karen Lee is a co-founder and managing partner of Green Sisterhood, a network of green women bloggers with aggregated monthly page views of over 2.5 million pageviews. We help companies to increase online branding awareness with content and social media marketing strategies, like Pinterest contests. Karen is also a founder and publisher of ecokaren where she writes about importance of washing your washing machine and on greening your life.

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Thanks for your ideas. I liked the way you put the words on your washing machine. Would you say an infographic is more powerful than your washing machine photo?

You said to think of habits . . . I thought about mine. Realized I click to the site for recipes, DIY projects and how to’s a lot.

Infographics I read from Pinterest without linking to the site because I see all I need to know. They do help with branding.

Your words on the washing machine were easy to do. Thought it was really a good idea.

Tips for readers . . . long vertical images with words are better than horizontal . . . your words will stand out more. Also, choose colors that pop. Learned that lesson the hard way. Only negative is vertical is not as good for board covers.

I like seeing infographic on Pinterest but it’s not big enough to read all the fine prints. I end up clicking it to the site, and enlarging it. So I don’t think it makes a difference. It’s hard to read everything from Pinterest.

One photo (of a person walking) with clear graphics on it will be simple enough to do and those who are curious will click on it to get that info.

Yes, vertical photos do better. And graphics on it is even better. I also change my board covers once in awhile to make them look fresh.

As far as I know, you will still need an analytics tool to see which of these pins brings you the most traffic, though. That being said, a quick visual scan of your pinned images “wall” should show which ones are pinned the most, indicating the most popular post AND the most popular image for that post.

I think they are rolling out a business users program with more analytics, so this may all improve soon.

Yes, I’m familiar with the source link but it only tells you a short history and not ALL of your posts unfortunately.

I do rely on GA for my referral traffic. I converted my Pinterest account to business but so far, I don’t see a lot of difference between personal and business accounts. Hope that changes though. But then, they might start charing for ‘something’…like Facebook…:(

I think it may depend on your target audience…you are going for other bloggy bloggers and they may not care, but many other people think it is spammy. Even if you add them, they get taken out if they do get repinned. Heck, I even take them out.

Starting to love Pinterest though I wasn’t able to decode the true strategy of getting lots of pin from it aside from being active from it. I guess Pinterest all boils down with who you are targeting and how attractive your pin was.

You can start slow and see how it goes. You can only do what you can do in a given time. You don’t want to get stressed out about it. But install its bookmarklet on your dashboard so you can easily pin. And install its app on your smartphone.

I love this post, Karen! Pinterest is perfect for my niche and I use it heavily. I will be using a lot of your tips :) I wanted to point out that you CAN see what has been pinned from your site (or any site). Use this:

Thanks for the tips. There are so many different social media networks out there, it’s difficult to keep active on each one. But clearly it’s time I got active on Pinterest. I’m amazed at how much it has grown and continues to grow!

I agree. I never know how much time to spend on what platform but if people are using one medium to get to my site more than others, you bet cha I’m “on it!’ too. :) Besides, I have the “pin it” bookmarklet on my dashboard so it’s easy peasy to click a post to pin….as I did to this post.

Actually found this post through a Tweet by a completely different person (@blazingminds) and yes your stats are incredible! I do pin, but see it more as a niche sort of place for those who sell products (or promote to buyers of tangible goods). However, since problogger sees the value in posting this, maybe there is something there for everyone. Like all those above, I’ve copied this url to my files for further review. Thanks!

I don’t know about my being the master that but I think the rules for optimizing Pinterest are not that much different than any other social media. It’s kinda what our mothers told us to do in public, and say “Please and Thank You” and you’re golden. :)

Great deep dive case study! Thanks for sharing all of your stats. I’ve just started using a tool called http://pinalerts.com and it’s pretty good for getting immediate notification when someone pins something from your domain.

Karen- Great article! I actual read your first post on your dirty washing machine and it’s Pinterest success last year (I think I may have even commented, not sure though). Your Pinterest advice is sound and what many people should follow as they try to understand the power of Pinterest.

Our web app PinAlerts will definitely help you overcome your pet peeve of seeing all the pins that are pinned from your website. You are correct that many pins “fall off” with their source directory. Hopefully, their new analytics will take care of this problem.

However, we are launching in a month what we call Pin History, which will once and for all take care of this issue. If you have any questions please definitely let me know. ~Paul

This is amazing, wonderful, and quite exciting – from my side of seeing your activities, you have always been a friendly, diligent, hard worker and this is very well deserved. Thanks for always sharing too!

I enjoy my Pinterest too…but had no idea it’s potential . . . however, I do believe a little knowledge of lots of things can get me started.

Great job! You definitely are making me want to do more with Pinterest now :) I do get traffic from Pinterest and I have one that has been repinned a few times – it was a recipe for cream cheese and banana filled crepes.

As far as I know, Pinterest automatically links the picture back to the original site or at least I think it is supposed to. I do double check when I repin tho to make sure that it is linked to the site. I don’t use Pinterest much, but will be doing it more now!

One thing I would like to see changed is to link to the post instead of homepage. I just went back through some of the pins from my blog and see that it links to my blogs home page and not to the post that it was from. I wonder why?? At least it links to the blog but when I set up the pin it button, I set it with the target url to be the post (at least I was pretty sure I did.) Is this something I did or do you notice that it only links to your homepage too?

“Wow, Darren never seemed like the kinda guy who would post photos of a moldy washing machine to Pinterest. But if he can get in touch with his sensitive side and drive tons of traffic via Pinterest, then I can too!” :)

The real takeaway here, is that Pinterest, like any other site, is a crapshoot. You can shout “Pinterest advice” from your pulpit all day long and nobody cares. The beauty you’re missing is that your old moldy washing machine post went VIRAL. This is like winning the lottery – it is purely a chance, random happening that you did not envision or plan for for or lie, cheat or steal to get. You didn’t shell out 5 bucks to some yokel on fiverr to make your post Pinteresting. It just happened. Why can’t you accept that?

WERE YOU employing your own “top Pinterest tips” to make you post VIRAL? I didn’t think so!

One of the most common problem people have when using they’re on social media is some people don’t really aware of sharing others stuff to get higher engagement But sharing others stuff and less sharing our own stuff is the best way of using social media.

Absolutely! I wholeheartedly agree that you have to share and pin other people’s stuff. Like stated in this post, my unwritten, general rule is to pin or repin 6 others and pin 1 of mine…but on most days, I pin others and forget to pin mine.

Thank you very much for providing this info and this post clears all my myths about getting traffic from pinterest.As all newbie bloggers i also done the same mistake that is pin my blog posts only in pinterest but there is no improvement in getting pageviews.From now onwards i concentrate on getting traffic from pinterest.

i have used pinterest for some time.which indeed generate some traffic,but not much.After reading your article,i get to know there is still a lot to do and room for improvement.Thanks for your sharing!

I’d definitely give it a try but don’t flood your boards with only your posts. Spread it at a ratio of 1 of your posts and 6-8 of others. it’s all about sharing the wealth and pay-it-forward. You won’ regret it.

Great post and really helpful. Curious on Tip 5 above (Upload your blog logo) 2 things:
1) When sharing content sometimes images don’t pull when putting in the url so I go to find an image in Google images that I think relates to the article as images are important I know with Pinterest. Is there another way to avoid doing that as its time consuming?

2) How do you assure when writing a post the image that will be shown for that post on Pinterest?

It’s ALWAYS recommended that you use YOUR images for your post OR Creative Commons Image. Not all Google Images are CC images. Some of them are copyrighted so you can’t pin them.

Now that’s established…. When you use the “Pin It” button from your post OR Pin It bookmarklet from your desktop tool bar, it should pull up the image from your post. You shouldn’t have to find an image and then, add an url for the pin. You can directly pin your post and be able to pull the image right from it.

As said above, when you use the Pin It button, it will give you choice of images, if there multiple images in your post. And the “pinner’ can choose which ones to use.

Karen,
Thank you for the very informative post. A great lesson no matter what platform you are using. With so many Social Media platforms available, which ones would you use less of if your time was more limited?
John

Personally, I get least amount of traffic from Twitter. So I tend NOT to spend too much time on it. But then, I should do the opposite – pay more attention to Twitter if I want more traffic.

So I redesigned my Twitter background, to make ME want to go there more so maybe it’ll attract more twitter followers back to my site. :)

I do think, though, personal posting definitely makes sense. i don’t even schedule tweets because people know that they are scheduled…at least I can recognize when tweets are scheduled when others tweet. Not genuine at all.

Hey there, I just wanted to let you know (in case you don’t yet), that on the newest version of Pinterest they have finally added Analytics! Just switch to the new version and then if you hover over the part on the right side with your username, a dropdown menu will appear and one of the choices is analytics :)